The present invention relates to face guards for athletic helmets and more particularly to face guards having a construction inhibiting gripping by hand.
Athletic helmets such as those used for football players are provided with a face guard to protect the face of the player from injury. Frequently, however, one player in order to stop an opponent will grab the face guard part of the helmet. This can result in severe and sometimes fatal injury to the player. In the present invention the face guard is provided with a horizontal bar structure which includes a plurality of rotatable, bead like elements. Thus when one player attempts to grip the bar structure there will be a tendency for the bead like elements to rotate in that players fingers, especially in a dynamic condition, whereby gripping is made more difficult. It should be understood that while the present invention will inhibit gripping it cannot assure that in all cases gripping will be prevented.
Therefore it is an objet of the present invention to provide a face guard for an athletic helmet which has a bar structure which includes a plurality of rotatable elements which inhibit gripping.
It is another general object of the present invention to provide a new and improved face guard.